I was offered the hardcover of 'The Girl On The Train last Christmas' by a fellow book blogger. So now that my boyfriend wanted to watch the movie, I really, really needed to read the book first (I always need to read the book first). And good thing I did, because in my opinion, the book is infinitely better than the movie.

THE PLOTOf course, the plot, once dissected, is basic. You have your usual suspects, and you know, in the end, one of them has to be the ‘killer’. This means while it was easy to predict the end in some way, many other possible endings would be as equally easy to predict. In this case, I thought the narrative flowed smoothly. It makes the reader gain awareness until it finally…gives the confirmation it was heading towards to. So it’s a good sign that you were suspecting it would end the way it did. It was coherent, with the right balance between being predictable but not entirely expected. The pace was good and fast. No major complaints.

THE CHARACTERSMany of the readers seem to mention the characters are unlikable and difficult to relate to, and based on a first impression, I would agree. Now we need to remember that at least two of the main characters are clearly unstable (for different reasons) and both are suffering some kind of post-traumatic disorder (we easily learn that after). In the end, the whole cast is human. Ugly, flawed, human. Again, and as I’ve mentioned before in some other book review, this is something that the mainstream audience has problems with. We as human beings always think we are better somehow. We always think we’d never be in the situation these characters were, or make decisions as stupid as they did, or or ever hit rock bottom like that. So, at some point, we don’t even feel sorry for these characters anymore. They frustrate us, due to their weakness. Hey, human for you.

All of this to say I’ve actually enjoyed exploring their minds through the pages. Even if as a whole, the characters might not be relatable, their issues are. Suspicion, jealousy, self-doubt, guilt, and so many other emotions that we are all way too familiar with.

THE WRITING STYLEThe story is narrated in first person and from three different POVs. In my opinion, Anna’s POV was unnecessary. The less POVs, the higher the suspense. The author’s writing style is strong, short and sweet, straight to the point. Hawkins’ foreshadowing techniques were implemented at all the right points, and made you wonder (aka turn the page).